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Tag: LBJ

We waded into your captions like a man driving a car into a lake! How to choose between splashy captions that referenced Secret Service men wearing floaties, the Aflac duck, James Bond, or water taxis?

Waterlogged with indecision, we turned to Liza Talbot, who in turn turned to the crew of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library. Congratulations to John M. Dooley! Your caption was the winner, “chosen by majority vote by the entire archival staff at the LBJ Library,” according to Liza.

John, check your email for a 15% discount code at the National Archives e-Store!

So, is this car rated for water excursions? Well, it is an actual amphibious car. In this photo from 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson took a ride with friends in his Amphicar. LBJ is steering his land-to-water vehicle into a lake at his ranch in Stonewall, Texas (4/11/65).

Today’s photograph features a vehicle and some unusual passengers, but no water in sight. Give us your best caption in the comments below!

Who knew that the “LB” in LBJ stood for “light bulb”? Apparently, quite a few of you! We were buzzing with excitement after reading your captions, and we needed to ground ourselves.

So we turned to our guest judge, Liza Talbot, who is an archivist at the Johnson Presidential Library and the mastermind behind the LBJ Timemachine. (Don’t miss today’s post of wartime footage shot by LBJ himself!)

Congratulations to Steve—Liza thought your caption was electrifying! Check your email for a code to get a 15% discount in our eStore.

So why was the future President looking so concerned? Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson was working to get public power to the people in the Texas countryside. This photo of Mrs. Mattie Malone and LBJ was taken by a photographer for the Austin American-Statesman in May 1941 during LBJ’s campaign for Senate.

Today’s photograph features a couple and a couple of lobsters. Get cracking and put your funniest caption in the comments below!

Today’s guest post comes from David Coleman, associate professor at the University of Virginia and Chair of the Presidential Recordings Program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

On April 28, W.W. Norton will publish volumes 7 and 8 in the Miller Center’s Presidential Recordings of Lyndon B. Johnson series. (The original tapes are in the holdings of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum.) The volumes, which span June through July 4, 1964, were edited by Guian McKee, Kent Germany, and David Carter.

“That’s a good bill, and there’s no reason why you ought to keep a majority from beating it. If you can beat it, go on and beat it, but you oughtn’t to hold it up. You ought to give me a fair shake and give me a chance to vote on it.”
—LBJ to House Minority Leader Charles Halleck, 6:24 p.m., June 22, 1964

Behind-the-scenes discussions between the White House and Capitol Hill can be an essential piece of the puzzle in understanding how and why legislation was passed, rejected, or changed, or even a government shutdown averted. But they’re typically

Martin Luther King, Jr. (center), with Roy Wilkins, James Farmer, and Whitney Young, met with President Lyndon Johnson in the Oval Office on January 18, 1964. (LBJ Library)

Martin Luther King, Jr., would have been 82 on January 15, and yesterday we observed the national holiday in his honor.

The above photograph shows a January 18, 1964, White House meeting between four civil rights leaders—Roy Wilkins, James Farmer, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Whitney Young—and President Lyndon Johnson. A civil rights bill was stuck in the House Rules Committee, and the President was determined to get it moving.

Only five months before the photograph was taken, these same four men had spoken before nearly a quarter of a million people during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King, Jr., the final speaker on that day, inspired the crowd with his ringing declaration that “I have a dream.”

The House finally voted in February 1964 and sent the bill to the Senate. As the year progressed, LBJ’s legislative orchestrations, combined with actions by civil rights supporters on the streets, got the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. The President signed it on July 2, and King, Wilkins, Farmer, and Young were in the East Room of the White House with him. (The story of getting the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 through Congress is told in the Summer 2004 issue … [ Read all ]

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